Main study taxa

Rearing
Trait measurements
Behavioural observations (direct and video tracking)
Field sampling
Species ID (Western Europe)

Languages

Data analysis

Bayesian & frequentist statistics
Linear models and extensions (Any and all combinations of generalized, mixed, non-linear, or multivariate)
Multivariate ordination and classification
…

Other software

Behavioural and evolutionary ecologist

Dispersal ecology and evolution, urban ecology

My researches on the causes and consequences of individual-level variation are especially focused on dispersal, as a key trait bridging ecological and evolutionary dynamics, and on the role of behaviour in explaining species’ ability (or inability) to persist in increasingly anthropogenic environments (especially cities).

I view these two axes of my researches as tightly linkled, given the role of dispersal in responses to environmental changes in space and time. As (dispersal) behaviours are one part of complex integrated phenotypes, I am also always interested in the dynamics of morphological and physiological traits, among others.

I develop these research themes using a combination of lab and outdoor experiments, monitoring in naturalistic contexts and individual-based models.

To go directly to the list of publications click here

Postdoctoral researcher

INRAE (formerly INRA), Institut Sophia Agrobiotech

Sophia-Antipolis, France

present - 2019

• Range expansions, individual-based modelling
• PI: Dr Elodie Vercken

ATER (fixed-term research and teaching associate)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2018 - 2016

• Evolutionary ecology in cities, dispersal ecology and evolution

Postdoctoral researcher

Ghent University, Terrestrial Ecology unit

Ghent, Belgium

2016 - 2015

• Behavioural changes in response to urbanisation
• Mentor: Prof. Dries Bonte
• funded by a personal Fyssen Foundation fellowship

Research assistant (PhD student/candidate in Biology)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2014 - 2011

• PhD thesis (defended Oct. 2014): Individual and environmental drivers of dispersal in a hermaphrodite species, the land snail Cornu aspersum.
• Supervisors: Dr Armelle Ansart, Prof. Luc Madec (Univ. Rennes 1)

ATER (fixed-term research and teaching associate)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2018 - 2016

'Moniteur’ (teaching assistant)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2012 - 2011

Courses taught or co-taught in these positions include:

 
Statistics and data science (lectures and practical)
Advanced R for data analysis (1st year of MSc) ~ 20h
Statistical tools, methodologies, and experimental design (2nd year of BSc to 1st year of MSc) ~ 230h
 
Ecology (lab and field)
General ecology (1st year of BSc) ~ 80h
Community ecology (3rd year of BSc and 1st year of MSc) ~ 42h
Spatial ecology (movement ecology; 1st year of MSc) ~ 4h
Ecological bases of vegetal production (3rd year of BSc) ~ 12h
Initiation to GIS (2nd year of BSc) ~ 4h
 
Zoology (lab and field)
Introduction to the diversity of life (1st year of BSc) ~ 30h
Entomology (3rd year of BSc) ~ 40h
Physiology of nutrition, development, growth (3rd year of BSc); ~ 6h

N/A

N/A

Supervision of 12 MSc students and 4 BSc students (1 to 6 months projects)

Field and lab studies of dispersal and behaviour
Data synthesis and individual-based modelling

N/A

2020 - 2012

Research grant from the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Rennes

€1500

N/A

2018

• Project: Dispersal syndrome evolution and habitat fragmentation
• Collaborators: Julien Pétillon (Univ. Rennes 1), Solène Croci (CNRS)

Fyssen Foundation postdoctoral grant

€24600

N/A

2016 - 2015

• Project: Behavioural changes in response to urbanisation

Contributor to the Life in the City : Evolution in an Urbanizing World blog

Discussions of current topics and articles in urban ecology and evolution

N/A

since 2018

Participation to the rotation curation outreach account La Bio au Labo

Archives (in French) here

N/A

2018

La vie au pied de l’immeuble: adaptation et évolution biologique en ville (Life among buildings : adaptation and biological evolution in cities).

Public talk and discussion, Pint of Science

Rennes, France

2017

with Balbi, M.

The Circles of Life: 52 stories of people and the things they really, really, really care about.

An illustration series by Franz Anthony.

N/A

2017

Increased population density depresses activity but does not influence dispersal in the snail Pomatias elegans

bioRxiv preprint

N/A

2020

• Dahirel M., Menut L. Ansart A.

Boldness and exploration are linked to shell morph but not environmental context in the snail Cepaea nemoralis.

bioRxiv preprint

N/A

2019

• Dahirel M., Gaudu V., Ansart A.

Brachylaima spp. (Trematoda) parasitizing Cornu aspersum (Gastropoda) in France with potential risk for human consumption

Parasite, in press

N/A

2020

• Gérard C., Ansart A., Decanter N., Martin M.-C., Dahirel M.

Urbanization drives cross-taxon declines in abundance and diversity at multiple spatial scales

Global Change Biology, 26(3), 1196–1211

N/A

2020

• Piano E., Souffreau C., Merckx T., Baardsen L.F., Backeljau T., Bonte D., Brans K.I., Cours M., Dahirel M., Debortoli N., Decaestecker E., De Wolf K., Engelen J.M.T., Fontaneto D., Gianuca A.T., Govaert L., Hanashiro F.T.T., Higuti J., Lens L., Martens K., Matheve H., Matthysen E., Pinseel E., Sablon R., Schön I., Stoks R., Van Doninck K., Van Dyck H., Vanormelingen P., Van Wichelen J., Vyverman W., De Meester L., Hendrickx F.

The distinct phenotypic signatures of dispersal and stress in an arthropod model: from physiology to life history

Journal of Experimental Biology, 222, jeb203596

N/A

2019

• Dahirel M.*, Masier S.*, Renault D., Bonte D. (* contributed equally to the work)

Dispersers are more likely to follow mucus trails in the land snail Cornu aspersum

The Science of Nature 106, 43

N/A

2019

• Vong A., Ansart A., Dahirel M.

Urbanization-driven changes in web-building are decoupled from body size in an orb-web spider

Journal of Animal Ecology 88, 79–91

N/A

2019

• Dahirel M., De Cock M., Vantieghem P., Bonte D.

Bottom-up and top-down control of dispersal across major organismal groups: a coordinated distributed experiment

Nature Ecology and Evolution 2, 1859–1863

N/A

2018

• Fronhofer E.A., Legrand D., Altermatt F., Ansart A., Blanchet S., Bonte D., Chaine A., Dahirel M., De Laender F., De Raedt J., di Gesu L., Jacob S., Kaltz O., Laurent E., Little C.J., Madec L., Manzi F., Masier S., Pellerin F., Pennekamp F., Schtickzelle N., Therry L., Vong A., Winandy L., Cote J.

Body size shifts in aquatic and terrestrial urban communities

Nature 558, 113–116

N/A

2018

• Merckx T., Souffreau C., Kaiser A., Baardsen L.F., Backeljau T., Bonte D., Brans K. I., Cours M., Dahirel M., Debortoli N., De Wolf K., Engelen J.M.T., Fontaneto D., Gianuca A., Govaert L., Hendrickx F., Higuti J., Lens L., Martens K., Matheve H., Matthysen E., Piano E., Sablon R., Schön I., Van Doninck K., De Meester L., Van Dyck H.

Kin competition accelerates experimental range expansion in an arthropod herbivore

Ecology Letters 21(2): 225–234

N/A

2018

• Van Petegem K., Moerman F., Dahirel M., Fronhofer E.A., Vandegehuchte M.L., Van Leeuwen T., Wybouw N., Stoks R., Bonte D.

Individual boldness is life stage-dependent and linked to dispersal in a hermaphrodite land snail

Ecological Research 32(5): 751–755

N/A

2017

• Dahirel M., Vong A., Ansart A., Madec L.

Intraspecific variation shapes community-level behavioral responses to urbanization in spiders

Ecology 98(9): 2379–2390

N/A

2017

• Dahirel M., Dierick J., De Cock M., Bonte D.

Dispersal: a central and independent trait in life-history

Oikos, 126(4): 472–479

N/A

2017

• Bonte D., Dahirel M.

Dispersal-related traits of the snail Cornu aspersum along an urbanisation gradient: maintenance of mobility across life stages despite high costs

Urban Ecosystems. 19(4): 1847–1859

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M.*, Séguret A.* , Ansart A., Madec L. (* contributed equally to the work)

Density-dependence across dispersal stages in a hermaphrodite land snail: insights from discrete choice models

Oecologia, 181(4): 1117–1128

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M., Vardakis M., Ansart A, Madec L.

Potential syndromes linking dispersal and reproduction in the hermaphrodite land snail Cornu aspersum.

Journal of Zoology, 299(2): 98–105

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

Context-dependence of the olfactory perceptual range in the generalist land snail Cornu aspersum.

Canadian Journal of Zoology, 93(8): 665–669

N/A

2015

• Dahirel M., Cholé H., Séguret A., Madec L., Ansart A. (2015).

Movement propensity and ability correlate with ecological specialization in European land snails: comparative analysis of a dispersal syndrome

Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(1): 228–238

N/A

2015

• Dahirel M., Olivier E., Guiller A., Martin M.-C., Madec L., Ansart A.
• featured in the Movement Ecology Virtual Issue

Stage- and weather-dependent dispersal in the brown garden snail Cornu aspersum.

Population Ecology 56(1): 227–237

N/A

2014

• Dahirel M., Ansart A, Madec L.

Pushed to the edge: dispersal restriction shapes eco-evolutionary dynamics of micro-wasp range expansions.

Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society

Belfast, UK

2019

• Dahirel M., Bertin A., Calcagno V., Fellous S., Lombaert E., Mailleret L., Vercken E.

Body size constraints and behavioural adaptations to city life: a case study in the spider Araneus diadematus.

Ecology Across Borders, joint conference of the BES, GfÖ and NeCoV

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Dahirel M., De Cock M., Bonte D.
• “Eco-evolutionary dynamics in an urbanised world” symposium, invited symposium talk

Metabolic dispersal syndromes and response to stress in spider mites

“Dispersal – Connecting networks”, EVENET Movement and Dispersal conference

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Dahirel M., Masier S., Renault D., Bonte D.

Behavioural responses of arachnids to urbanisation: the role of intra- and inter-specific variation

16th conference of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Exeter, UK

2016

• Dahirel M., Dierick J., Bonte D.

Habitat specialization and movement characteristics in European helicoid land snails: implications for dispersal and foraging strategies

9th “Ecology & Behaviour” SERL meeting

Strasbourg, France

2013

• Dahirel M., Olivier E., Madec L., Ansart A.

Dispersal strategies in the land snail Cornu aspersum: sex-biased dispersal in a hermaphroditic species?

8th “Ecology & Behaviour” SERL meeting

Chizé, France

2012

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

An introduction to Bayesian data analysis using Stan.

Ecology Across Borders, joint conference of the BES, GfÖ and NeCoV

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Hertzog L., Dahirel M.

MSc in Evolutionary, Behavioural and Functional Ecology

University of Rennes 1

Rennes, France

2011 - 2009

• with honours, rank: 1st year 1st/46, 2nd year 1st/18

BSc in Organismal Biology

University of Rennes 1

Rennes, France

2009 - 2006

• with honours, rank: 2nd/130